Finesse Introduces TruLink Consortium

April 20, 2007 – Finesse Solutions, LLC, Santa Clara, CA, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for life science applications announced the formation of the TruLink Consortium. The stated goal of this consortium, whose Founding Members include Finesse, OSIsoft and MatrikonOPC, is to bring together best-in class equipment suppliers and life science industry leading end-users to facilitate the successful implementation of an open standard by which hardware and software units can communicate with and/or control one another.

TruLink has been developed to leverage the high throughput of OPC with the flexibility of XML.That having been said, the TruLink standard utilizes XML documents to define the structure anddata availability of TruLink enabled units while OPC connections are dynamically created betweenthese units to pass control instructions and data. At the center of the TruLink standard are itsthree defining roles; 1) Create a standard definition of OPC links between pieces of equipment. 2)Ensure S88 Batch compliance and Validation support. 3) Enables dynamic connection betweenOPC servers automatically when data or control is required thereby allowing multiple units to usecommon equipment via arbitration.

An example of a TruLink enabled application in the life sciences would be for a bioreactor controllerto be able to receive a glucose measurement from a chemical analyzer, based on that measurementthen send a request for a viability measurement to a cell viability analyzer and based on the informationreceived from these two devices automatically change the feed control strategy to the bioreactor asneeded, when needed. Currently this is not achievable due to the inability of these devices to receivecontrol instructions such as defined in the TruLink open standard.

“We as best-in class suppliers to the life science industry have an obligation to work together to overcometechnological hurdles that face our industry,” says Larry West, Executive V.P. of Sales and Marketingat Finesse and Executive Director of the TruLink Consortium. “With the participation of industryleading end-users we are assured that these technological hurdles will be clearly defined and ultimatelyovercome,” said West.

About FinesseCalifornia based Finesse is a global leader in process measurement and control technologies. Ourfamily of products – TruBio™, TruLogic™, TruViu™, TruCell™, TrupH™, and TruDO™, provide comprehensivesolutions for measurement and control processes in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.